3 replies to this topic

[gsimerlink]

Hi all,

I'm trying to find the best solution for a bad situation. I have a site that is based on a customized version of osCMax (oscommerce variant) which is about to launch. The problem is that due to a lack of communication (between myself and the software customizer) all the content and cart are found at www.mysite.com/catalog/index.php I expect many people to be heading to www.mysite.com What would be the best solution to get visitors to where they need to go. I can think of three choices:

1) Create a landing page at www.mysite.com which makes people use one more click to get to the Real Content.
2) Do a 301 or 302 redirect to www.mysite.com/catalog/index.php so visitors don't really realize anything.
3) Go through all the code and change all of the pathways to variable instead of exact. Then more the cart down one level to reside on the root instead of /catalog/

(I can't really get the company that customized it to change the location or links since they have already blown every deadline set and I really don't want to work with them anymore.)

I know in the end that solution 3 would be the best bet, but I really need to get my site up and running. I figure in a few months I can move things to the root level.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

gsimerlink

[Randy]

Simply set up a 301 redirect from www.yourdomain.com to www.yourdomain.com/catalog/ gsimerlink. Works every time. Or at least every time I've done it, which numbers something north of 500 times now.

Note: If the links in the main page of the site actually point to the /index.php page, your best course would be to either redirect directly to it instead of the directory level, or you can change those links so that they point only to the directory instead of at /index.php. It's an edit usually pretty easy with dynamic shopping cart since you'd only need to find them in a couple of templates. Typically once in the header template and once in the template that creates the navigation block.

[gsimerlink]

Thanks Randy,

I was really hoping that would be the answer, but I worried it would be #3.

It makes me feel a bit better to hear that you have done this too.

[Randy]

I've done it more times than I can count anymore. I'm not sure if that's a sad statement, or just the reality of having been involved in too many sites on one level or another over the years.

Either way, you're completely safe using a 301 to point your main domain to a subdirectory. The engines will treat the default page there just like it was at the root level of the domain.